C G Grey - Editor: 1916 - 1940
Charles Grey, or C G as he was known, the second editor of Jane's All the World's Aircraft, is considered by some to be the first great aviation journalist. He became an honorary Companion of the Royal Aeronautical Society.
Grey was born on 13th November 1875 and educated at the Erasmus Smith School in Dublin and as an engineer at the Crystal Palace School of Engineering. Grey's first job was as a staff writer for The Autocar. His secondary role as the magazine's aviation specialist resulted in a commission from Iliffe and Sons, Ltd. to edit a penny weekly aviation paper called The Aero. In 1911, in partnership with Mr E V (Later Sir Victor) Sassoon, Grey founded The Aeroplane and he remained editor until 1939. Grey took over as editor of Jane's All the World's Aircraft from 1916 to 1940. From 1939 he was air correspondent of The Yorkshire Evening Post, Edinburgh Evening News and various overseas journals. Grey also wrote a number of books including A History of British Air Ministry (1940), The Luftwaffe (1944) and The Civil Air War (1945).
"Anyone who read C G in the 'twenties and 'thirties without having met him might have supposed his critical references, and sometimes perverse and acid comments, reflected his nature and personality. Nothing could have been further from the truth. As long as we knew him he was a gentle and kindly man, always charming and generous to his friends, among whom he numbered rivals. Today there are men on Flight's staff who recall a kind word of encouragement here or a spot of advice there from the one-and-only C G, particularly when they were taking their first tentative steps in the hard and competitive world of journalism. His goodwill continued to be reflected in frequent correspondence. From the first to the last occasion upon which we talked to him, he never once failed to express either an original thought or to reveal an unexpected viewpoint on some current topic. Neither his writing nor his conversation was ever lacking in humour and regardless of one's age."
- Flight Magazine, 18th December 1953, published after Grey's death.

Leonard Bridgman - Editor: 1941 - 1959
"Leonard Bridgman, who died on 19th December, 1980, will be remembered with respect by many people for achievement in a range of widely differing interests and skills,"wrote John W R Taylor, his successor as Editor for Jane's All the World's Aircraft.
Bridgman's first assignment in aviation was in 1913, aged 18, when one of his drawings was used to illustrate the Hendon Air Race programme. As payment he received a flight in a 70 hp Maurice Farman biplane. During the First World War, Bridgman served as an officer in the Honourable Artillery Company.
He is best remembered within the aviation industry as the journalist who joined C G Grey in 1923 on the staff of Jane's All the World's Aircraft after working on the staff at The Aeroplane. Bridgman also edited Esso Air World from 1939 to 1963.
In 1956 in recognition of his contribution to technology, principally his work on Jane's All the World's Aircraft, Bridgman was awarded a Paul Tissandier Diploma by the Federation Aeronautique Internationale. By that time, he had been associated with flying and publishing for 43 years.
Bridgman was also a talented artist and produced many aviation paintings, wash drawings and illustrations. He received commissions for numerous advertisements for British companies and illustrated Oliver Stewart's text for The Clouds Remember, one of the classics of aviation literature.

John W R Taylor - Editor: 1960 - 1989
John William Ransom Taylor edited Jane's All the World's Aircraft for three decades during the Cold War. He retired as editor in 1989, just as the Iron Curtain obscuring the Soviet Bloc's technology started to lift.
Taylor, who lived to the age of 77, was a master of a parallel art to Kremlinology, he could deduce the performance of Soviet military equipment from blurred photographs.
"Thus in 1961, when Western intelligence was fascinated by early glimpses of a new Soviet bomber, the Tupolev Tu-22, many analysts estimated it could reach a speed of Mach 2.5 - more than twice the speed of sound. But Taylor, after noting the shape of the aircraft's engine intakes, put the maximum at no more than Mach 1.4, which proved much closer to the truth. In 1983, he analysed the MiG-29 fighter, whose agility was the cause of much anxiety amongst NATO's war-gamers; seven years later, when Jane's was able to check his suggested measurements, they were found to be accurate to within an inch. " The Guardian, Tuesday 25th January 2000.
Taylor was educated at Ely Cathedral Choir School and Soham Grammar School in Cambridgeshire. He trained as a draughtsman and joined Hawker Aircraft in 1941. There he worked on the development of the Hurricane fighter and its successors. His specialisation was rectifying design defects. He joined Jane's as editorial assistant on Jane's All the World's Aircraft in 1955 and four years later he took over as editor. Until the late 1960s he edited this volume with virtually no editorial support but his love of aviation was such that this was a challenge he enjoyed.

Mark Lambert - Editor: 1990 - 1994
Mark Lambert trained to fly as a fighter jet pilot on Gloster Meteors with the Royal Auxiliary Air Force. His flying experience with the RAF qualified him to join Flight in 1953 as the air test features writer and during his tenure he tested over 300 types of aircraft. Whilst at Flight, Lambert also flew the company's communications aircraft, which successively was a Miles Gemini, Beech Baron and Piper Seneca, to name a few. As well as holding an instrument rating, he was also technically qualified and specialised in electronics and aircraft systems. He was promoted to assistant editor of Flight in 1964. After leaving to work in the aerospace industry for a time, he rejoined the magazine in 1973 as international editor and later became associate editor. Lambert had an array of talents: he spoke fluent French, German and Italian and was known to entertain his colleagues at Flight with his guitar playing in the office from time to time. He married Anna and they had twins. He later went to Switzerland to work for Interavia and took over the post of editor of Jane's All the World's Aircraft in 1990.

Paul Jackson - Editor: 1995 - 2019
Having, by chance, received his first aircraft book at the age of six, Paul Jackson had become an avid enthusiast of all things aeronautical by the time he began a technical grammar school education in Hull, England. Before the end of his ’teens, he had helped to found a local aviation society and become editor of its monthly magazine; had his first historical research published; and contributed to the definitive history of Blackburn Aircraft.
He wrote for amateur and professional journals – on both historical and current matters — for a further decade before becoming a full-time, freelance, aerospace photo-journalist and book author in 1979. During this time, he was the compiler of the World Air Forces Directory issued by Aviation Advisory Services; wrote for numerous periodicals, part-works and encyclopaedias; was news editor of Aviation News; regularly contributed to the RAF Yearbook; authored books for Ian Allan and Midland Counties Publications; and began a four-decade association with what became Aviation Week Group’s Show News.
In 1987, he was invited to join the five-strong compiling team of Jane’s All the World’s Aircraft, being appointed its editor-in-chief in 1995. Simultaneously, he was founder editor of Jane’s World Air Forces. During both appointments at Jane’s, he further developed his previously-learned skills of technical appraisal; diligent research and analysis of open-source data; and of finding the truth concealed behind the misleading press releases and exaggerated brochures issued by some aircraft manufacturers and governments.
This natural skepticism led to unanticipated notoriety after 2013 when he turned his attention to the glaring disparities in the Wright Brothers’ accounts of their claimed invention of the airplane. The international furore thus generated become a distraction to Jane’s main business and prompted the company to request his historical researches be conducted anonymously. This embargo remained in force until 2019, when he retired from Jane’s employ after 32 years and resigned his Fellowship of the Royal Aeronautical Society. He now lives in semi-retirement, working on less demanding editing tasks.